Page 8 of Even Ground

“To be fair, I thought you and Damon were about to out-man each other.”

“I won the girl in the end.”

Reece looks between us. “Sounds like there’s a story there.”

“Oh, just some guy who had a crush on Delaney back home. He never stood a chance against Josh.” Josh’s smile goes all the way to his eyes. He knows how protective I am of Delaney, and while he probably didn’t appreciate it back then, he sure does now.

“Josh would have kicked his ass knowing how much in love he is,” Reece says.

I shift my gaze to Reece. “That’s exactly why I kicked them both out of the diner.”

“Now that was a day.” Delaney breezes into the room and walks straight to Josh. I roll my eyes and look away at their very affectionate greeting, only to find Reece doing the same. My cheeks burn as he copies my eye roll and grins at me.

“Are you here for dinner, Reece?” Delaney asks.

“I’m not travelling all this way and going home with an empty stomach.” He lifts his shirt and rubs his washboard abs in a circular motion. I spend way too much time focusing on them, and blush yet again when he catches me. Argh.

“It’s good to have you back.” Josh breaks away from Delaney and grips Reece’s shoulder. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

“I hope you don’t want too much out of me. I’m tired and I thought you had all this wedding stuff under control.”

Josh laughs. “I do. We just have to go over what you’re doing. I’m talking about the business.”

Reece slinks out of Josh’s grasp. “Can’t that wait until after your honeymoon?”

Delaney looks between the two of them. “I’m going to go and sort out dinner. Want to get away from these two, Pania?”

“That might be a good idea. Let’s have some real wine instead of listening to Reece whine.”

She bursts out laughing. “Come on.”

“I heard that,” Reece calls out as we walk toward the kitchen.

“You were meant to,” I call back.

My heart’s racing, but I can’t help my smart arse mouth sometimes.

3

Reece

I never thought I had a type.

But looking through my dating history, you would think I only ever hooked up with leggy blondes. It’s probably mostly true, but not really a preference.

I’d seen photos of Pania on Delaney’s social media, but she’s even more stunning in person. Her long legs are about the only similarity to women I usually date, and she’s showing them off in blue mid-thigh shorts. Her hazel eyes stopped me in my tracks the minute I saw them. Not that I would ever let her know that.

Pania’s long hair looks like honey against her smooth brown skin.

And every time I make eye contact with her over the table, she blushes and drops her gaze.

There isn’t much I know about Pania. Delaney’s spoken about her at length, and I wrack my brain to remember everything she told me. But without the context of knowing her, it didn’t mean much. I knew she was Maori and bilingual, that she’s been Delaney’s best friend virtually from birth, and that the two of them studied cooking together. Now she’s studying fashion design although having seen that wedding dress, I think she’s got a head start on the rest of the class.

Ordinarily, I’d make a move at this point, but given that she’s Delaney’s friend and we’re having a family meal, it’s probably not good behaviour.

“Your shoot’s all done?” Josh asks.

I pitch my fork into my plate of tuna bake and meet his gaze. “Uh huh. Shot the last scene this morning.”

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